At the very least, Monday's loss to the Dodgers chalks one up to the future, as Jenrry Mejia was once again dazzling with six innings of work with four K's, no BB's, and another variety of off-speed filth that's too good to call junk (just ask Yasiel Puig, who struck out twice in a fashion known in the business as "silly"). With any defensive help, Mejia gets through his outing without having to worry about an "L". And that's why I can't get too upset at the bad umpiring that crippled the Mets, because when you boot grounders, throw away routine throws to third base on base hits which cost your team the lead, and you give up a home run to a guy who only had 16 in his career of just under 3500 plate appearances, you don't deserve to win.
But boy was that umpiring crew atrocious, as evidenced by Jeff Kellogg's questionable call on what should have been a checked swing by Juan Lagares in the seventh down 3-2 with the bases loaded and a 2-0 count, and then Chad Fairchild's bizarre strike zone which saw Lagares strike out in the same at bat on a pitch that was a foot outside. Granted, he called that a strike against the Dodgers too (which is probably why Terry Collins didn't argue although he probably should have), but that isn't a strike on this planet. Combine that with the inexcusable ejection of A.J. Pierzynski by Ron Kulpa for trying to protect his pitcher while he was pitching a perfect game, and you get the perfect excuse to gather all of these umpires into a room this winter and re-teach them some common sense before shooting Angel Hernandez into the sun.
Instead we get Nick Punto hitting his 17th career home run (Willie Mays had 17 in a month) and cavorting with his new friend Danny DeVito (the star of a show called "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") for all to see while the game was still in progress. (DeVito must be that lucky leprechaun that's been guiding the Dodgers to a 38-8 record … or maybe he's actually the manager running the show from his private box after saving Mattingly from getting fired.) I gotta give DeVito credit for backing a player like Punto instead of following the crowd and sporting a Puig jersey. But I guess people of a certain height have to stick together … which makes you wonder why DeVito never wore a Chin-Lung Hu jersey if being vertically challenged was enough to get you into this secret society of talent.
Oh that's right, because Chin-Lung Hu sucked.
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